Major hotel and condo tower proposed to replace stalled Vancouver office project | Daily Hive

2026 concept for a mixed-use hotel and condo tower at 1166 West Pender St., Vancouver. (Hariri Pontarini Architects/Hines/Reliance Properties)

When Vancouver City Council approved the rezoning application for 1166 West Pender St. in July 2019, the redevelopment of the site was envisioned as a 364-ft-tall, 32-storey office tower with 355,000 sq. ft. of premium Class AAA office space.

It would replace a 1974-built, 15-storey office building that had been the longtime local office of Canada Revenue Agency.

This is a mid-block property located near the southeast corner of the intersection of Bute Street and West Pender Street in the Central Business District of Downtown Vancouver.

In 2022, local developer Reliance Properties announced that this would be the first office tower project to begin construction emerging from the pandemic. It had also partnered with Houston-based international real estate and investment firm Hines, with this project set to be the firm’s first in the city. In anticipation of the start of construction, Reliance Properties saw its rezoning enacted by the municipal government in 2022 and the development permit issued subsequently, and at around the same time it also selected EllisDon as the construction contractor.

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But then, due to economic challenges and the sustained weakness in the office space market resulting from the proliferation of semi-remote office work, this office tower project never began construction — although the previous building was demolished, and some site preparation work was performed.

This is now the first public update on the redevelopment in four years.

Reliance Properties and Hines have now submitted a new rezoning application that completely abandons the previous architectural design and office uses in favour of a far taller and larger tower with a new mix of a major hotel property and strata market ownership condominium uses.

Site of 1166 West Pender St., Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Existing condition:

Site of 1166 West Pender St., Vancouver. (Google Maps)

Cancelled 364-ft-tall, 32-storey office tower design:

July 2020 artistic rendering of 1166 West Pender Street, Vancouver. (Hariri Pontarini Architects/Reliance Properties)

New concept for a 530-ft-tall, 49-storey hotel and condominium tower:

1166 West Pender Street Vancouver hotel reliance properties 2026

2026 concept for a mixed-use hotel and condo tower at 1166 West Pender St., Vancouver. (Hariri Pontarini Architects/Hines/Reliance Properties)

Hariri Pontarini Architects, the project’s original architect, has been retained for this latest pivot to build a 530-ft-tall, 49-storey tower, which would have a more slender form, smaller floor plates, and greater building setbacks than the previous office tower concept.

The first 11 floors would be dedicated to a 199-room hotel, with a second-level mezzanine providing a hotel restaurant and cafe. The proponents anticipate the hotel uses could support up to 125 full-time jobs.

There would also be 33 floors of condominium uses within the upper levels of the tower. The unit size mix would entail 340 condominium homes, including 221 one-bedroom units, 98 two-bedroom units, and 21 three-bedroom units.

There would be indoor and outdoor amenity spaces for hotel guests and residents on the 15th level, dedicated hotel amenities on the third level, and dedicated residential amenities on the 49th level.

On the ground level, accessible from West Pender Street, there would be a shared hotel and residential lobby providing a single entrance point, but the hotel and condominium portions of the tower would be accessed using separate elevators. Furthermore, there would be a driveway onto the property from West Pender Street to provide an attractive and comfortable pick-up and drop-off space for hotel guests. According to the proponents, based on their analysis, the hotel guest experience and financial performance can suffer when a hotel property lacks a proper pick-up and drop-off area at the main entrance.

2026 concept for a mixed-use hotel and condo tower at 1166 West Pender St., Vancouver. (Hariri Pontarini Architects/Hines/Reliance Properties)

This project pivot is attributed to the City’s Hotel Development Policy, enacted in 2025 to catalyze more new hotel projects and help address Vancouver’s growing shortage of hotel room supply. Destination Vancouver has forecast the need for 20,000 additional hotel rooms across Metro Vancouver over the coming decades, including 10,000 within Vancouver, where demand is highest. The combination of hotel and residential uses, along with extra density and more flexible allowances, is made more feasible by recent City policies and approaches.

Technically, this taller design enters View Cone 3.2.1, emanating from the peak of Queen Elizabeth Park. However, according to the proponents, this view cone is no longer relevant to their property, as the view is already concealed by the 2022-built The Stack office tower, situated immediately to the south. The project would be just two feet shorter than The Stack.

However, the proponents are seeking an exception to the City’s updated building shadowing guidelines, enacted in 2025, specifically for the new shadows the tower would cast on Harbour Green Park, which is located a few blocks to the north. They note that the maximum new shadow, covering 3.3 per cent of the park’s surface area, would occur only during a limited 15-minute interval at certain times of the year.

If the project were to follow the shadowing guidelines, it would result in a significant loss of more than 100 ft. of tower height and about 100,000 sq. ft. of building floor area. This would render the project financially and economically unviable and unable to deliver significant public benefits.

The previous City planning team’s strict building shadow considerations were also a major sticking point for Reliance Properties before the pandemic. They resulted not only in an overall height limit for the previous office tower concept, but also in partial floor plates on the uppermost levels to further reduce the shadow impact on the southernmost edge of Harbour Green Park.

2026 concept for a mixed-use hotel and condo tower at 1166 West Pender St., Vancouver. (Hariri Pontarini Architects/Hines/Reliance Properties)

As proposed under the new application, the total building floor area would reach about 452,000 sq. ft., including 168,800 sq. ft. for hotel and commercial uses and 283,400 sq. ft. for residential uses.

It would have a floor area ratio density of 24, meaning the building’s floor area would be 24 times larger than the 18,600 sq. ft. plot of land.

Seven underground levels would provide more than 200 vehicle parking stalls. There would also be more than 650 secured bike parking spaces.

This property is adjacent to the Loden Hotel to the south, and the Coast Coal Harbour Vancouver Hotel and the Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel to the north. It is also within a very short walking distance from SkyTrain’s Burrard and Waterfront stations, Vancouver Convention Centre, and the Canada Place cruise ship terminal.

About two blocks to the northeast, Reliance Properties is also planning to completely convert the 1966-built, 12-storey office tower at 1111 West Hastings St. into Le Germain Hotel Vancouver. The boutique hotel property will have 180 rooms and a restaurant. Construction on the drastic renovation project is expected to begin before the end of 2026 for an opening in 2029, becoming the first British Columbia location of the Quebec-based Le Germain Hotel chain.

1111 west hastings street le germain hotel vancouver

Artistic rendering of the existing office building at 1111 West Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver, renovated into Le Germain Hotel Vancouver. (Germain Hotels/Reliance Properties)

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